The biggest threats over these years have been new competition from traditional landline phone companies entering the pay-TV industry and, more recently, the Internet video streamers such as Netflix and Hulu.
At the moment, Comcast seems to have battled the telephone companies to a standstill in markets where they compete head-to-head. The telephone companies also have slowed their pay-TV expansion to focus on smartphones and fast-growing wireless services.
Video consumers, meanwhile, seem to be using Internet streaming services to broaden their entertainment options rather than using them to replace cable TV.
Craig Moffett, a leading telecommunications analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. L.L.C., called Comcast's low subscriber losses a "real shocker" and noted in a newsletter that subscriber trends "are likely to continue to gather momentum." Such an outcome was "unthinkable in consensus numbers as recently as six months ago," he wrote. "That's a HUGE change."
John C. Hodulik, telecommunications analyst with UBS Securities L.L.C., said in a conference call with Comcast executives that the 17,000 losses "should be a great harbinger of things to come."
Cable division president Neil Smit said in the same conference call that he did not believe Comcast could add subscribers in the first quarter because of rate-increase headwinds, but he did not dampen speculation about additions later in the year.
Comcast's stock soared 4.7 percent, or $1.27, to close at $28.52 a share with the subscriber news disclosed Wednesday in the company's fourth-quarter and full-year earnings report.
